Word: pope
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2010-2019
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...letter was read to Catholic Church congregations throughout Ireland and Europe. It rebuked the actions of the Irish hierarchy for "grave errors of judgment" but said nothing about the Vatican's responsibility in the scandal, which saw the alleged abuse of thousands of children over seven decades. The Pope, however, did apologize for the suffering of the Irish. "It is understandable that you find it hard to forgive or be reconciled with the church," the Pope wrote. "In her name, I openly express the shame and remorse that we all feel...
...reluctance to speak out surprises and hurts many Catholics. "Many Catholics in Germany had hoped that the Pope would have expressed a word of personal sympathy for the victims of abuse," says Christian Weisner, spokesman for the well-known Catholic reform group We Are Church. Papal officials, however, defend Benedict's silence. "The Pope was not part of what happened back then, and he shouldn't be part of it now," says a Vatican insider. Indeed, the Vatican has mounted an aggressive campaign to portray the scandals as an attempt to besmirch the Pope and discredit the church...
Even the famous choir of Regensburg, led for 30 years by the Pope's brother Georg Ratzinger, was drawn into the scandal after former choirboys said they had endured brutal beatings and sexual abuse. Georg Ratzinger, now retired, said he was unaware of sexual-abuse cases but said he regretted slapping members of the choir. Franz Wittenbrink, a former singer who lived at the Regensburg boarding school connected with the choir from 1958 to 1967, tells TIME it is "unimaginable" that Ratzinger hadn't heard about sexual abuse during his time as director. Wittenbrink claims there was a "widespread system...
Father, Don't Be Mum The Vatican argues that there's no connection between vows of celibacy and sexual deviance, and the Pope himself, a staunch conservative who recently defended celibacy as "an expression of the gift of oneself to God," is unlikely to budge on the issue...
...more immediate question is whether Benedict can resist pressure to directly address the abuse scandals. Gibson, his biographer, says that's just not in the Pope's character: "He's not the type who opens up for self-reflection, hashing out the past and past mistakes." At best, he says, there will be an oblique reference to the Europe-wide uproar in the pastoral letter to the Irish. (See people finding God on YouTube...